


Luna Lovegood's Home for Wayward Wizards

by thewightknight



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Homeless kids, Tumblr Prompt, homeless wizards, luna is everyone's mom, muggle born wizards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 13:45:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9074518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: Akaria had been on the streets for weeks now, after strange things started happening around her, and then a strange girl shows up with even stranger chocolate.





	

**Author's Note:**

> From [this prompt on tumblr](http://iprayforangels.tumblr.com/post/153996690418/i-was-thinking-about-how-there-are-probably):
> 
>  
> 
> _I was thinking about how there are probably homeless wizarding kids in the Harry Potter universe. Muggleborns specifically. Their parents don’t react positively to a magical child. They don’t see a gift or a miracle. They see the devil. So they throw their kids out. I picture a ministry group in charge of taking in and caring for homeless magic children. They just when they get the message a kid has magic but no address they send people out to find them. They get taken in my the ministry or adopted by wizarding parents who want to adopt a magic child._
> 
>  
> 
> _Specifically I would like you all to picture Luna Lovegood taking in rowdy formerly homeless magic 10 year olds, getting them ready for Hogwarts, and sending them letters on the time. They call her mom. They live with her durinng the summer. She is known for her generosity and gentleness. Picture little gryffindors wanting to hear all about how she knows Harry Potter, little ravenclaws discussing riddles with her, little hufflepuffs saying they want to grow up to take in kids just like she did, and little slytherins getting her help on their work so that they can be the very best. Picture please Luna Lovegood being Mama Bear for like 14 formerly homeless magic children._

Akaria stared at the glass separating her from the deli sandwiches on display in the vending machine. It never worked unless she got really scared or really mad, but she kept trying. Maybe someone would come along and yell at her and get her angry enough and she could grab something in the chaos that followed. But her luck remained bad, just like it had every other day for the last three months.

Tucking her hands into the pockets of her hoodie, she shuffled off, head down, stomach rumbling so loud people stared at her as she passed. 

When she got to “her” alley, someone had stolen her spot. She tried to get mad about it again, but she was too tired, too worn down. It wasn’t fair, though. The new girl was clean, and she didn’t have bags under her eyes and she wore layers and layers of clothing to keep her warm so why did she have to steal Akaria’s spot, right under the exhaust fan for the department store’s central air. She had a weird stick stuck behind one ear, and wore a necklace of what looked like bottlecaps.

“You’re in my spot.”

“Do you want to share?”

“You’re daft. There’s barely room for one in there.”

The girl acted like she hadn’t spoken.

“I’ve got two. Would you like one?”

She held out an odd shaped box, blue and gold cardboard. Her hunger overrode her caution over accepting anything from strangers and Akaria snatched it from her. Chocolate Frog, it said. Chocolate! She could count on her fingers the number of times she’d had such a treat. With trembling fingers she pried the lid open, and the confection really was shaped like a frog, just like it said on the box, almost lifelike. But before she could reach into the box, the candy jumped. As she watched, incredulous, it hopped its way up a drain pipe, disappearing over the rooftop.

“Oh, dear. I forgot to warn you. You have to be quick.”

Looking back down again, she found the girl had snuggled herself back into Akaria’s nest and had pulled a magazine out from somewhere.

“What was that?”

“A chocolate frog, of course.”

“But it moved!”

“Well, yes.”

She kept paging through the magazine, and Akaria realized she was reading it upside down.

“Are you looney or something?”

“Some people call me that. Well, not so much anymore, but they used to.”

“Okay, I must be hallucinating.”

“Like when your stepfather’s can disappeared from around his beer and it spilled all over his lap? Or when that boy who was bullying you flew into the river?”

“How do you know about that?”

“You aren’t alone, you know.”

“What, there are other freaks like me?”

“Lots of us. But most of us aren’t alone like you, and when we’re not alone we don’t feel as much like freaks. I just wanted to let you know that if you get tired of being alone, you don’t have to be.”

She held out a piece of paper. It had a picture of it, of a double decker bus. As Akaria stared, the picture moved across the paper, the bus coming to a screeching halt on a corner and the door opening.

“That’s mad.”

“We’re all a bit mad. It might be the Wrackspurts. They’re always floating around.”

She held out the weird paper again.

“Just wave this ticket in the air. When the bus arrives, tell the driver to take you to Snorkack’s Corner. I hope you’ll come soon.” Maybe if she took the ticket this weirdo would leave and she could get her spot back? It was worth a shot. Shuffling forward, she snatched the piece of paper, half expecting it to go up in a puff of smoke or turn into a snake and bite her. Once she took it, the girl pulled the stick out from behind her ear and waved it around, muttering a word Akaria didn’t catch, and vanished with a pop.

Two days later, faint from hunger and chilled to the bone after a sudden downpour, she decided she had nothing to lose.

The bus appeared out of nowhere and screeched to a halt in front of her, just like the picture.

“Where you headed, miss?” The driver looked rather ratty, but she didn’t look much better at the moment, so who was she to judge.

“Um, Snorlack’s Corner?”

“Snorkack, you mean? You’re one of Miss Luna’s, then?”

“Is she the weird lady with the bottlecap necklace?”

“That’s her, alright. Hop onboard.”

She dozed off on the bus somehow, despite all its jolts and bumps, waking with a start when the driver called out “All out for Snorkack Corner! Your stop, miss!”

They were nowhere near London. For as far as the eye could see there was nothing but grassy fields with rock walls. Directly in front of the bus sat a little cottage. She hesitated, unsure now that she found herself in unfamiliar territory. 

“Don’t you worry, miss,” the driver told her, cocking his cap and giving her a wink. “You’ve got a round trip ticket there. If you decide you want to go back, just hold it up again, and I’ll get you back where you started from.”

Okay, then. She could do this. Smoke rose from the chimney, and then the door to the cottage burst open and several children of varying ages came running through it. They all jumped up and down, waving at the bus.

“C’mon, then! Dinner’s almost ready. Come meet everyone!” the tallest one called, a boy about her own age, a boy with hair that started out green and changed to purple as she watched.

“It’s okay. We were all scared at first too.” The youngest held out her hand and Akaria stepped down from the bus. She heard it screech away behind her, but it barely registered as the little girl dragged her into the cottage. The door opened up into the biggest kitchen she’d ever seen, bigger than the whole cottage had looked from the outside. A spoon stirred a huge pot of something on the stove all by itself and dishes rearranged themselves on the table, an extra space added before her eyes.

“Oh, good. You came!” The strange blond girl popped out of nowhere. Literally. “I hope you’ll stay for dessert. There’s pudding!”

**Author's Note:**

> [Cross-posted from tumblr](https://thewightknight.tumblr.com/post/155007466303/iprayforangels-i-was-thinking-about-how-there). Feel free to come say hi!


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